Panel offers ethics session for town workers, others

MariAn Gail Brown

Updated 12:25 am, Friday, August 30, 2013

Trumbull's Ethics Commission, which had difficulty finding members without a conflict of interest to hear an ethics complaint against Al Barbarotta of AFB Construction Management, wants to educate municipal employees -- as well as anyone else covered by the town's Ethics Code -- about what the commission's jurisdiction is, and what issues and transactions are subject to its authority.

The commission will host an information session Oct. 3 from 3 to 5 p.m. at Trumbull Town Hall.

The last time the town's Ethics Commission held an information session about the scope of its work was in 2008, according to the commission's August 2013 minutes, which note that the meeting was "well attended and well received."

Trumbull has a broad ethics code and conflict of interest policy that subjects not only municipal and school employees to its authority, but anyone who belongs to a board or commission -- including the Ethics Commission -- or does business with the town.

Barbarotta faced an Ethics Commission probe earlier this summer that accused him of conflict of interests stemming from school construction, renovation and maintenance practices relating to $972,000 worth of snow removal he farmed out to subcontractors.

The Ethics Commission dismissed the complaint against Barbarotta after three, closed-door hearings.

A report from the town's internal auditor James Henderson to Trumbull's Board of Finance found deficiencies in the Trumbull school system's fiscal controls that allowed Barbarotta to gain information that would give him an edge over other vendors for energy efficiency initiatives, and allow him to circumvent the public bidding process.

Asked what he hoped town employees and attendees might learn from the information session, Ethics Commission Chairman Thomas E. Lee said he had no comment.

In August, the commission discussed whether it had the authority to initiate an ethics investigation and Lee confirmed that it did.

At the time, the commission mulled over how it should handle complaints where multiple parties might be involved.

Members also discussed how to separate complaints where two or more individuals were accused of ethics violations, so that fewer commissioners might have to recuse themselves if they perceived a conflict of interest with one, but not all of the accused.